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Season 1 Episode 9 Mar 23, 2016

Sweet Chemistry

Wherein we hear from Chastity Belt (Hardly Art recording artist)
about the discomforts and contentments of touring Europe in a
not-too-large RV, and get a sense of how they operate as a band;
and we talk to Mike Kunka of upcoming (and long-time-coming!) Sub Pop
recording project Mike and the
Melvins about the story of Three
Men and a Baby (the M&tM record, not the Steve Guttenberg flick),
Suzanne Vega, parenting vs. playing music, and so much more.

Show Notes

Even if you’ve not “been there, done that” (yet?), you can still get the
water bottle to prove it
(or at least something that will hold liquid). If that’s not quite your
speed, nothing says “Sub Pop” like a t-shirt that literally only says
“Sub Pop”.

Chastity Belt by Conner Lyons

OK! With our commercial obligation fulfilled, let’s get started with
Chastity Belt! As
mentioned in the show, what we heard from Chastity Belt is the second
interview we conducted with them, the first, “lost” interview being done
just prior to the European tour that’s the topic of their segment. The
interested and/or prone-to-musing listener might wonder, “Will I ever hear
this ‘lost’ interview?” I can’t answer that. I’m curious, too. Mostly
I want to know if they listened to the Lord of the Rings books on
tapes on the tour. (Which of course that first interview could not
possibly answer…)

Chastity Belt’s most recent album (from the perspective of the edge of winter
turning to spring, 2016) is Time to Go
Home on Hardly Art.
It’s a fantastic album, and everyone who hears it loves it.

Of many highlights, let’s sample “Time to Go Home” (I know… it’s
boring to pick the title track. Sue me!).

Of many highlights, let’s sample “Time to Go Home” (I know… it’s
boring to pick the title track. Sue me!).

Chastity Belt recently toured with Hardly Art labelmates
Protomartyr. Besides
killing it in every venue they played, “media outlets” were falling
all over themselves to write about and publish photos of these two
acts. Check
out what I’m
talking
about.

To save you the trouble of google mapping it, here’s what the drive from
Bristol, UK to Barcelona looks like. That’s a lot of ground to cover in
one day, even if you aren’t gassed and robbed in the middle of it.

Can we learn anything about the habits of bandits operating in France
vs. bandits operating in the Barcelona region of Spain/Catalonia from
Chastity Belt’s experience? The French technique is more sinister and
carries more risk of something really really bad happening (I for one am
really glad Chastity Belt didn’t have their organs harvested, for
instance), but the thieves “only” took money. They didn’t even leave a
mess behind. The physical proximity of thief to victim(s) is the
wildcard there, and what renders the scenario particularly disturbing. In
Barcelona, I’d guess the thieves wouldn’t have robbed an occupied van
(perhaps lacking the sophistication of their French counterparts). If
that’s true, there’s very little chance of bodily harm (which is
nice)… but the vehicle was torn apart, which for a touring band can
be highly problematic.

Either way is a drag. I don’t think we can draw any conclusions. Let’s
be glad that Chastity Belt made it through all of it relatively
unscathed.

As mentioned, the members of Chastity Belt all went to college together
at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA (which is suuuuuper far away from
Seattle). Here’s the documentary Arwen
mentioned from their school daze.

A short documentary about Chastity Belt made in the spring of 2012 by
Alex Folkerth, Amanda Villasenor, and Jack Gretsch.

A short documentary about Chastity Belt made in the spring of 2012 by
Alex Folkerth, Amanda Villasenor, and Jack Gretsch.

I hope that by now Ben Gibbard and the entirety of Chastity Belt have
cleared a time in their schedules and made brunch a reality!

Moving on, let’s learn a little bit about Mike Kunka. Here he is the
mid-90s (?) at the actual physical Sub Pop Mega Mart that used to be on
2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle.

Where to start… Let’s start with day
one. Mike is
from Fargo, North Dakota where he and Dan Haugh started
godheadSilo. godheadSilo
moved to Olympia, WA in the early 1990s (it was the thing to do at the
time) and put out a handful of releases on Kill Rock
Stars before becoming
a… you guessed it, Sub Pop recording artist, making two full length
records for the label
before being forced into hiatus by Dan severely injuring his arm :(

Take a gander at my poorly shot photo of the original artwork from the
final godheadSilo record Share the Fantasy hanging on the
wall at Sub Pop HQ. This painting is about 5 inches square. Look at
the detail (or imagine it – sorry about the image quality) and ponder that!

godheadSilo “Relationshit” from Share the Fantasy.

godheadSilo “Relationshit” from Share the Fantasy.

After godheadSilo (who are, I neglected to mention earlier, a really
really great band), Mike formed
Enemymine who released two
records, the first on K Records, then The Ice in Me on Up Records.
(There’s an Up Records / Sub Pop connection – we hope to tell that
story in a future podcast episode.)

Which brings us to Suzanne Vega. I’m incapable of adding to what Mike
said in the interview. Refer to the tape. If you’re Suzanne Vega’s
people, Mike Kunka wants to talk. Contact us at
podcast@subpop.com and we’ll make the connection.

You deserve a prize if you’re still reading (and you’re not a blood
relative to me or under the employ of Sub Pop Podcasting Corporation,
LLC). We are almost done! So, speaking of blood relatives, we need to
talk about Issaquah for a minute.

Issaquah, Washington, USA is a town
about 15 miles east of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascades.
(Full disclosure: I grew up in Issaquah. That’s why Issaquah is, for
me, “speaking of blood relatives.”)

Let’s get this out of the way: the episode might give the impression
that Mike Kunka is from Issaquah. In fact, he’s from North Dakota. But
one of Mike’s three favorite musical things is from Issaquah: Afronauts!
Issaquah is everywhere you look, if you know where to look. From
Issaquah: four current and one former employee of Sub Pop, the early-mid
90s band Lync, Modest Mouse
(not every member ever, but Isaac is, and more than one other member), Tiny
Vipers, Afronauts (of
course), Jerkbeast (discussed in episode
six)(*), Boss
Martians, annnnnd… more things I’m
certainly forgetting.

(*: It’s no coincidence that Afronauts and Jerkbeast are both from
Issaquah. They’re the same people. Afronauts have, from what I can
gather, zero presence on the World Wide Web.)